gamerMan
Member
I am glad that gamers are speaking out against them. The fact that Insomniac is responding means that gamers have won. If gamers said nothing in Rockstar fiasco, no change would happen.
The next time a developer thinks about using QTEs to drive a setpiece, they are going to look at the backlash that Spider-Man received. The message is clear: Gamers don't like them in any form no matter how many fancy polygons, textures, moves, camera angles, and special effects you layer on top of them. They are not cool.
It's an interesting discussion. Are QTEs ever okay? Is there a way to design blockbuster moments around your core gameplay mechanics instead of separating them out into "Blockbuster moments" ? I'd argue yes.
Button prompts on their own are not bad when they serve to enhance the experience, but the problem is relying on them to drive the coolest parts of your setpieces. The other problem is it doesn't make sense in the context of the gameplay. Like why am I pushing triangle to make Spider-Man duck when I can't duck in the game by hitting the triangle button. It's so random. Honestly, it seems like the Insomniac designed this setpiece because they thought we would get bored if we didn't randomly hit a whole lot buttons feverishly every once and awhile.
It's a weird disconnect between the core gameplay and setpieces. The first Uncharted was filled with loads of non interactive button-mashing Summer Blockbuster moments that felt so isolated from the core game. Quiet frankly, all these moments were rubbish and hindered the overall game.
Naughty Dog went back to the drawing board with Uncharted 2 and said we want to make our summer blockbuster moments playable. They built an entire moving traversal system for the game just to accomplish this goal and it drove the whole development of the game. Their setpieces became a part of their core mechanics instead of being separated out.
God Of War was another game that relied on QTEs for blockbuster moments. Now the team has designed the blockbuster moments around the core gameplay mechanics in the latest God Of War.
As the gaming medium matures, great developers have found a way to design around QTEs and as a result their games have been better.
The next time a developer thinks about using QTEs to drive a setpiece, they are going to look at the backlash that Spider-Man received. The message is clear: Gamers don't like them in any form no matter how many fancy polygons, textures, moves, camera angles, and special effects you layer on top of them. They are not cool.
It's an interesting discussion. Are QTEs ever okay? Is there a way to design blockbuster moments around your core gameplay mechanics instead of separating them out into "Blockbuster moments" ? I'd argue yes.
Button prompts on their own are not bad when they serve to enhance the experience, but the problem is relying on them to drive the coolest parts of your setpieces. The other problem is it doesn't make sense in the context of the gameplay. Like why am I pushing triangle to make Spider-Man duck when I can't duck in the game by hitting the triangle button. It's so random. Honestly, it seems like the Insomniac designed this setpiece because they thought we would get bored if we didn't randomly hit a whole lot buttons feverishly every once and awhile.
It's a weird disconnect between the core gameplay and setpieces. The first Uncharted was filled with loads of non interactive button-mashing Summer Blockbuster moments that felt so isolated from the core game. Quiet frankly, all these moments were rubbish and hindered the overall game.
Naughty Dog went back to the drawing board with Uncharted 2 and said we want to make our summer blockbuster moments playable. They built an entire moving traversal system for the game just to accomplish this goal and it drove the whole development of the game. Their setpieces became a part of their core mechanics instead of being separated out.
God Of War was another game that relied on QTEs for blockbuster moments. Now the team has designed the blockbuster moments around the core gameplay mechanics in the latest God Of War.
As the gaming medium matures, great developers have found a way to design around QTEs and as a result their games have been better.